Drying of artificial fibers, filaments, and the like



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ITED STATES` PAT DRYING F ARTIFICIAL FIBERS, FILA- y MENTS, AND THE LIKERobert L. Wormell, Coventry, England, assignor to Courtaulds Limited,London, England, a British company Nr ori-*ice I Application December 2,1948, Serial No. 63,096 In Great Britain December 12, 1947 Claims. (Cl.34-23) 1 2 This invention relates to the drawing of artlbelts lying sideby side may be mounted on comdclal filaments, libres and like lamentarymamon driving rollers geared to the drive for the terials, hereinafterreferred to generally as libres. woven wire belt conveyor so that allthe conveyor In the manufacture of continuous or disconbelts move at thesame speed. The open support tlnuous artificial threads, it is known tocollect to- 5 may be arranged a short distance below the woven getherbres extruded from a large number of wire belt conveyor in order toassist in transferjets into a tow of parallel fibres, to treat the towring the tow from one conveyor to the other. A with suitable liquids andfinally to dry it. The transverse rod of glass or other material belowthe denier of such tows is usually of the order of 10,- pair ofside-by-side belts is preferably provided 000 to 200,000. It is known todry the wet tow by l0 as a guide for the tow as it is withdrawnsubstanfeeding it in convolutions on to a pervious or pertiallyvertically downwards between the belts and forated continuous travellingbelt which is moved then led to the collecting device. slowly throughone or more drying chambers, the The present invention may be applied tothe dried tow being finally pulled off the belt and drying of tows ofall kinds of artificial libres wound into bundles such as crossballs.During l5 such as viscose rayon threads and casein libres, theWithdrawal of the tow from the belt there is a in continuous ordiscontinuous lengths. The intendency, particularly with heavy tows, forthe vention is particularly useful for drying heavy tow to becomeentangled so that a tangled mass tows for example of the order of 50,000to 200,- builds up which impedes4 and eventually stops 000 denier.

the continuous withdrawal of the tow. In addi- The invention alsoincludes apparatus for drytion, the desired parallel relationship of thelibres ing a continuous tow of artificial fibres comprismay be disturbedleading to the production of A ing in combination at least one dryingchamber, neps when the tow is subsequently drawn out into a travellingsupport for conveying the tow sliver form. through the said dryingchamber and having'an The object of this invention is to reduce theopening through which the tow can pass downtendency of the libres in thetow to become entanwardly, a guide situated beneath the support, gledwhen withdrawn from the'mass of convoluand draw-off mechanism forwithdrawing the tions. tow at the end of the drying operation throughThe present invention comprises a process for said opening in saidsupport and into contact with drying a continuous tow of artificialfibres by said guide. feeding wet tow in convolutions on to a travelvApreferred form of apparatus according to the ling support, conveying themass of convolutions invention comprises in combination at least one ofthe tow whilst on the support through one or drying chamber, atravelling y support for conmore drying chambers, and passing the drytow veying the tow through the said drying chamber, at a ratesubstantially equal to the rate of feed to a second travelling supportarranged at the end a collecting device wherein the dried tow is withofthe first travelling support for receiving the drawn from the undersideof the mass of convodried tow and having an opening through whichlutions substantially vertically downwards from the tow can passdownwardly, a guide situated bethe underside of the mass of convolutionswhilst neath said second support, and draw-off mechathe mass issupported and being conveyed. nism for withdrawing the dried tow throughsaid The tow is preferably withdrawn substantially opening in saidsecond support and into contact vertically downwards from a conveyorconsisting with said guide. The second travelling support of two endlessparallel moving belts lying side by preferably comprises two endlessconveyor belts side with a gap between them, the tow being laid lyingside by side with a gap between them, across the two belts so that asitis withdrawn it I through which gap the 120W may be Withdrawn is beingtaken from each of the belts alternately. substantially verticallydownwards.

Such a, conveyor may constitute the sole con- The present invention isillustrated by way of veyor in the drying chamber, but preferably theexamples` in the accompanying diagrammatic convolutions of wet tow arecarried through the drawings in which, drying chamber on a conveyorv ofnormal con- Figure 1 is a side view of one form of apparatus struction,such as a woven wire belt, and then, in which the tow is transferredfrom a drying belt when dry, are passed on to a moving open supto asecond travelling support from which the tow port from which they arewithdrawn substantialis withdrawn.

ly vertically downwards according to the inven- Figure 2 is a view, inperspective, of one end tion. ln such apparatus two endless conveyor 55of the drying belt and the open support of the apparatus of Figure 1with the drying chamber removed, and

Figure 3 is a side view of a further form of apparatus in which thedrying belt serves also as the open support from which the tow iswithdrawn.

Referring to Figures 1 and 2 of the drawings, a tow I is laid inconvolutions 2 on a travelling belt 3 which carries the convolutions oftow through a drying chamber 4. The dried tow is then transferred fromthe belt 3 to a second conveyor formed by two parallel moving belts 5and 6, both supported and driven by rollers 1 and 8, with a gap 9between the belts. As shown, the belts 5 and 6 are slightly lower thanthe belt 3 in order to assist in the transfer of the dry tow from belt 3to belts 5 and 6. After the convolutions 2 of tow have been carriedforward by belts 5 and 6 for a distance at least suflicient to cool thetow, the end of the moving tow is withdrawn substantially verticallydownwards through the gap 9, round the transverse rod ID and then to acrossball collecting device Il. The belt 3 is preferably a woven wirebelt such as is normally employed for drying tow. When using two belts 5and 6 as described, the tow is withdrawn from each of the beltsalternately so that the direction in which the tow is pulled on thebelts is continually changing.

The driving rollers 1 and 6 are preferably geared to the drive for thebelt 3 so that all the belts 3, 5 and 6 are moved at the same speed.

In the apparatus shown in Figure 3 a single conveyor is used, theapparatus otherwise being the same as shown in Figures 1 and 2 and likereference numerals are included to show the corresponding parts. Asshown in Figure 3 the tow I is fed in convolutions 2 on to a conveyor 3which consists of two parallel belts preferably constructed in the samemanner as the belts 5 and 6 of Figure 2; in this case therefore the towis withdrawn substantially vertically downwards through the opening inthe support 3', round the guide rod I0 and thence to the collectingdevice l l.

What I claim is:

1. In a process for drying a continuous tow of artificial bres byfeeding wet tow in convolutions on to a travelling support, conveyingthe convolutions of tow whilst on the support through at least onedrying chamber and passing the dry tow at a rate substantially equal tothe rate of veyor belts lying side by side whilst the mass is supportedand being conveyed on said belts.

2. Apparatus for drying a continuous tow of artificial fibres comprisingin combination, at least one drying chamber, a travelling support lorconveying the tow through the said drying chamber and having an openingthrough which the tow can pass downwardly, a guide situated beneath thesupport, and draw-off mechanism for withdrawing the tow at the end ofthedrying operation through said opening in said support and intocontact with said guide.

3. Apparatus for drying a continuous tow of artificial fibres comprisingin combination at least one drying chamber, a travelling support forconveyingthe tow through the said drying chamber, a second travellingsupport arranged at the end of the first travelling support forreceiving the dried tow and having an opening through which the tow canpass downwardly, a guide situated beneath said second support, anddraw-off mechanism for withdrawing the dried tow through said opening insaid second support and into contact with said guide.

4. Apparatus as claimed in claim 3 wherein the second travelling supportcomprises two endless conveyor belts lying side by side with a gapbetween them, through which gap the tow may be withdrawn substantiallyvertically downwards.

5. In a process for drying a continuous tow of artificial fibres byfeeding wet tow in convolutions on to a travelling support, conveyingthe convolu tions of wet tow through a drying chamber on a travellingsupport and passing the dry tow at a rate substantially equal to therate of feed to a collecting device and the steps of passing the towwhen dry on to a second moving support having an opening and withdrawingthe dried tow substantially vertically downward through said openingfrom the underside of the mass of convolutions whilst the mass issupported and being conveyed.

R. L. WORMELL.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 2,133,424 Buckwalter Oct. 18,1938 2,333,278 Truesdail Nov. 2, 1943 2,336,019 Kline et al Dec. 7, 19432,379,824 Mummery July 3, 1945

